AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE 58:168–177 (2015)
Characteristics of Nonfatal Occupational Injuries Among U.S. Workers With and Without Disabilities Junxin Shi, MD, PhD,1 Stephen Gardner, BS,2 Krista K. Wheeler, MS,1 Meghan C. Thompson, Bo Lu, PhD,3 Lorann Stallones, MPH, PhD,4 and Huiyun Xiang, MD, MPH, PhD5
BA,
2
Background Workers with disabilities have a higher risk of nonfatal occupational injuries than workers without disabilities. The characteristics of these injuries are not well described. Methods Using 1997–2011 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data, we compared the nonfatal occupational injuries sustained by U.S. workers with and without disabilities. Results Overexertion or strenuous movements and falls accounted for 56.7% of all occupational injuries in workers with disabilities, compared with 45.6% in workers without a disability. Workers with disabilities were more frequently injured in the lower extremity (32.3% vs. 26.6%) or torso (22.9% vs. 16.9%). Workers with disabilities sustained more unspecified injuries (13.5% vs. 7.9%) and fewer open wound injuries (15.7% vs. 24.2%) than their counterparts without a disability. Conclusions U.S. workers with disabilities had a higher rate of occupational injuries and these injuries tended to be more severe and were more likely to be caused by overexertion/ strenuous movement or falls. Am. J. Ind. Med. 58:168–177, 2015. ß 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
KEY WORDS: disability; occupational injury; U.S. workers; nonfatal; injury severity
INTRODUCTION Based on the 2012 American Community Survey (ACS), an estimated 10% of people (aged 18–64 years) in the United States, or approximately 19.6 million people, have disabilities [U.S. Census Bureau, 2012]. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, in January 2014, 4.5 million people with disabilities aged 16 years and above were employed [U.S.
1 Center for Pediatric Trauma Research, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, Ohio 2 Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, Ohio 3 Ohio State University College of Public Health, Columbus, Ohio 4 Colorado Injury Control Research Center, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 5 Center for Injury Research and Policy, Center for Pediatric Trauma Research, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, Ohio Correspondence to: Huiyun Xiang, MD, MPH, PhD, Center for Injury Research and Policy, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, 700 Children’s Drive, Columbus, OH 43205.E-mail: [email protected]
Accepted11September 2014 DOI10.1002/ajim.22395.Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).
ß 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Department of Labor, 2014]. Due to the aging workforce and the increasing number of children with disabilities who will eventually enter the working population, the number of workers with disabilities will likely increase in the coming years [Institute of Medicine (IOM), 2007]. Recent reports from the World Health Organization and the U.S. Surgeon General have addressed disparities in the health of persons with disabilities [U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2005; World Health Organization, 2011]. Previous research has shown that persons with disabilities are more susceptible to injuries [Xiang et al., 2005, 2014; Brophy et al., 2008; Rasch et al., 2008] and have a greater risk of occupational injury [Moll van Charante and Mulder, 1990; Zwerling et al., 1997, 1998a,b; Lysaght et al., 2011]. Our previous study, using 10 years of National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data, showed that the U.S. workers with disabilities have a 2.39 times higher odds of occupational injury than workers without disabilities [Price et al., 2012]. Previous studies have reported a higher prevalence of occupational injuries among workers with disability; however, to our knowledge no study has examined the characteristics of occupational injuries sustained by U.S. workers with
Occupational Injuries Among U.S. Workers
disabilities. Prior research has defined disability in different ways; however this study and more recent studies have sought to measure those reporting activity limitations which may or may not be accommodated environmentally. Information on injury characteristics, such as demographics, causes of injury, places of injury, types of injury and the most vulnerable body regions, is necessary to develop evidencebased injury prevention programs [Holder et al., 2001; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC), 2013]. Previous injury research focusing on persons with disabilities has been limited by small sample sizes of individuals with disabilities [Xiang et al., 2005; Brophy et al., 2008; Price et al., 2012]. Therefore, these smaller sample studies were limited in their ability to conduct the detailed analyses needed to discover the unique mechanisms and environmental situations of injuries suffered by persons with disabilities. This study aimed to compare the major occupational injury patterns among U.S. workers with and without disabilities, including the leading causes of injury, places of injury, activities at the time of injury, injury severity, injured body part, and types of injuries. Knowing patterns of injuries among U.S. workers with disabilities would provide crucial information that can aid in the creation of evidencebased injury prevention strategies for reducing work-related injuries among U.S. workers with disabilities.
MATERIALS AND METHODS Data Source We analyzed data from the 1997 to 2011 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) [National Center for Health Statistics, 2011]. This survey data, maintained by the National Center for Health Statistics, provided cross-sectional health information on the civilian, non-institutionalized population in the U.S. The complex survey design allows for the calculation of national estimates. The NHIS used computerassisted personal interviews to collect information about the prior 3 months for all members of selected households. The overall response rate for the survey years was approximately 86%. In our study, the Person file was used for extracting demographic information including disability information, and the Injury Episode file was used to obtain data on injury characteristics. Calculations of pooled estimates were performed as recommended in the NHIS Survey Description file to produce reliable and meaningful results about the U.S. civilian worker population over the defined time period.
Identification of Workers Workers were those “working for pay at a job or business,” “with a job or business but not at work,” or
169
“working, but not for pay, at a family-owned job or business” in the past week. For those respondents included in the Sample Adult survey, the responses on employment status were considered more accurate than the answers in the Person file, because in the Sample adult file, the respondent was answering for themselves, while in the Person file, the information might be collected from another person in the household. For the subset of workers with Sample adult data, occupation information was reported. Occupation was not known for those workers with Person file data only.
Definition of Disability Disability questions in the NHIS survey were based upon the disability concepts of the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) [World Health Organization, 2011]. Respondents were asked whether they had activity limitations because of a physical, mental, or emotional problem. Activity limitations questions included personal care needs, routine needs, working, walking, remembering or any other activities. This classification of disability has been used in previous studies [Loeb and Chen, 2011; Price et al., 2012]. To ensure all disabilities were pre-existing to any reported occupational injuries in our study, respondents were categorized as having a disability if they answered “yes” to any of the disability questions and if the limitations were from a chronic condition. Conditions that are generally not cured once acquired or other conditions that have been present for 3 months or longer were considered chronic in NHIS. Persons without disabilities were defined as those “not limited in any way.” Those reporting “limited, unknown if condition is chronic” and those “limited, not caused by chronic condition” were excluded from the analysis. The NHIS variables used to define limitations (disability) did not change between 1997 and 2011.
Definition of Occupational Injuries The NHIS collected specific data about medically treated injuries that occurred during the 3 months prior to the interview. Interviews were conducted year-round, thereby eliminating seasonal influence. Details about the injury included diagnosis, cause of injury, location, and activity at the time of injury. Injury information was then verified and coded using the International Classification of Disease 9th revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) codes for nature/ diagnosis (N code) and external cause (E code). Each respondent was allowed to record up to 10 injury and poisoning episodes. Every injury occurrence reported by a respondent was counted as a separate injury episode. One injured person could have multiple injury episodes. Occupational injuries were defined by the response of “working at a
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paid job” to the survey question “What activity were you involved in at the time of the injury?”
Sociodemographic Variables We included sex, age, race/ethnicity, education, marital status, poverty status, and health insurance coverage as variables that could potentially affect the association between disability and injuries. Questions about demographic information were recorded in the NHIS Person file, and the responses were obtained from one member of the household for all members of the household.
Statistical Analysis Data analyses were conducted using SAS 9.3 (SAS Institute, Cary, NC) and Stata release 13 (StataCorp LP, College Station, TX). Our analyses accounted for the complex survey design of the NHIS. The SAS procedure SURVEYFREQ was used. We translated the ICD-9-CM diagnosis code(s) into New Injury Severity Score (NISS) and entries of the Barell Diagnosis Injury Matrix using a Stata program ICDPIC [Clark et al., 2010]. The Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) scores each individual injury by body region according to its relative severity on a 6-point scale. The NISS is defined as the sum of the squares of the AIS scores of each of a patient’s three most severe AIS injuries regardless of the body region in which they occur [Osler et al., 1997]. The entries of the Barell matrix are combinations of injury body regions and nature of injury [Barell et al., 2002]. From these entries, we further extracted body region and nature of injury. Following procedures described in the Survey Description file, we calculated national estimates, weighted proportions (%), and 95% confidence intervals for the proportions, by demographic and other injury characteristics for workers with and without disabilities. The Chi-square test was used to compare rates and proportions. The data analyzed in this study were de-identified publicly accessible data. The Institutional Review Board of Nationwide Children’s Hospital reviewed the study and approved the exempt status.
RESULTS Using NHIS data from 1997 to 2011, our analysis included 633,710 workers 18 years who met the study’s inclusion criteria. Of the 633,710 workers, 4,105 workers reported 4,203 occupational injuries during the survey reference period. Among the 604,134 workers without disabilities, 3,678 workers reported 3,757 medically treated occupational injuries, with a 3-month incidence of 0.62 injuries per 100 workers. Among the 29,576 workers with
disabilities, 427 workers reported 446 occupational injuries, translating into a 3-month incidence of 1.51 injuries per 100 workers. The difference between these two rates was statistically significant (P < 0.0001). The prevalence for workers with disabilities decreased by 34% (the average in the period of 2007–2011 compared with the average in 1997– 2001), while for workers without disabilities the prevalence decreased by 25%. Those workers with chronic bone/joint injury and those with back/neck problems had a higher prevalence of occupational injuries (Table I). The characteristics of the workers with and without disabilities are shown in Table II. Females were a slightly larger proportion of the workers with disabilities (48.9%) when compared to the proportion of females among workers without disabilities (46.3%). Workers with disabilities were older than those without disabilities. Of the workers with disabilities, 31.5% were 55 years or older, as compared to workers without disabilities (15.3% were 55 years or older). There were a larger proportion of Non-Hispanic White persons among those with disabilities. A smaller proportion of those workers with disabilities had completed a 4-year degree. Among workers with disabilities, larger proportions were separated/divorced/widowed (26.2% vs. 14.0% of workers without disabilities). Workers with disabilities were more heavily represented in service occupations and had smaller proportions in managerial and professional occupations. Workers with disabilities were poorer, but similar proportions of workers with and without disabilities had health insurance. Male workers sustained over half of all occupational injuries in both groups; however the gender distributions were different among workers with and without disabilities, with females accounting for a larger proportion of injuries among workers with disabilities (43.3%) compared with 31.4% among those without a disability (Table III). Workers with disabilities sustaining occupational injuries tended to be older and separated/divorced/widowed. There were no other striking differences in the distribution of occupational injuries between workers with and without disabilities with respect to race, education, poverty status, or medical insurance coverage. Occupational injuries to workers with disabilities appeared to be slightly more severe than injuries to workers without disabilities (Table IV). Workers with a disability who sustained an occupational injury tended to miss more workdays and a higher proportion of their injuries were in a higher NISS group. The mean NISS was higher in workers with disabilities (2.24 3.98) than in workers without disabilities (1.80 1.61), P ¼ 0.0268. Overall, however, the majority of injuries were minor, with only about 2% of injuries requiring hospitalization and over 90% of injuries with a NISS less than 5. Table IV also shows the location and cause of injuries. Compared with injuries sustained by workers without a disability, a higher proportion of occupational injuries among workers with disabilities occurred at a shopping center,
Occupational Injuries Among U.S. Workers
171
TABLE I. The Prevalence of Occupational Injuries Among U.S.Workers With and Without Disabilities, NHIS1997^2011
Number of workers
Number of workers sustained occupational injuries
Workers without disabilities 604,134 3,678 1997^2001 219,126 1,572 2002^2006 199,723 1,109 2007^2011 185,285 997 Workers with disabilities 29,576 427 1997^2001 11,694 193 2002^2006 9,663 141 2007^2011 8,219 93 Chronic conditions reported by workers with activity limitations/disabilitiesa Back/neck problem 7,608 153 Arthritis/rheumatism 4,345 66 Fracture/bone/joint injury 3,317 70 Musculoskeletal problem 2,605 36 Heart problem 2,469 20 Depression/anxious/emotional problem 2,408 37 Lung/breath problem 2,249 31 Nervous system problem 2,223 29 Diabetes 2,040 28 Hypertension 1,876 22
Number of occupational injuries
Proportion of injured workers (%)
Injury prevalence (%)
3,757 1,605 1,129 1,023 446 204 147 95
0.61 0.72 0.56 0.54 1.44 1.65 1.46 1.13
0.62 0.73 0.57 0.55 1.51 1.74 1.52 1.16
163 70 72 38 22 38 33 29 29 23
2.01 1.52 2.11 1.38 0.81 1.54 1.38 1.30 1.37 1.17
2.14 1.61 2.17 1.46 0.89 1.58 1.47 1.30 1.42 1.23
a
Workers reporting limitations, top10 chronic conditions associated with disabilities/activity limitations.Workers may report more than one chronic condition.
restaurant, store, bank, gas station, or other place of business, or at a health care facility, and less likely occurred in industrial or construction areas. Overexertion/strenuous movements and falls were the two leading causes of workrelated injuries for both U.S. workers with and without disabilities. However, among the injuries to workers with disabilities, these two types of injuries accounted for a higher share of the total: 56.7% for workers with disabilities versus 45.6% for workers without disabilities. The top three types of injuries (by body region injured and nature of injury) for workers with disabilities were sprains and strains of the back and buttock (9.9%), open wounds of the wrist/hand/fingers (8.8%), and unspecified injuries of the trunk (6.5%) (Table IV). The injury profile was different for workers without disabilities, with the top three injuries being open wounds to the wrist/hand/fingers (15.6%), sprains and strains of the back and buttock (9.5%), and lower leg or ankle sprains and strains (6.0%). Workers with disabilities had a higher percentage of unspecified injuries of the trunk (6.5% vs. 2.9%) and fewer open wound injuries of the wrist/hand/ fingers (8.8% vs. 15.6%) compared with workers without disabilities. With respect to body region injured, a higher proportion of workers with disabilities were injured in the lower extremities (32.3% vs. 26.6%) and torso (22.9% vs. 16.9%) than workers without disabilities. Although the
leading injury type for both groups was sprains and strains (37.4% and 38.6%, for workers with and without disabilities, respectively), workers with a disability had more unspecified injuries (13.5% vs. 7.9%) and fewer open wound injuries (15.7% vs. 24.2%).
DISCUSSION Utilizing 15 years of NHIS data to produce one of the largest study samples of U.S. workers with occupational injuries, this study found differences in workplace injury patterns among workers with and without disabilities. Workers with disabilities sustained more work-related injuries, and these injuries appeared to be more severe compared with those sustained by workers without disabilities. For workers with disabilities, overexertion/strenuous movements and falls were the two most common mechanisms; sprains and strains were the most common type of injuries for both workers with and without disabilities. Confirming the findings of our previous study [Price et al., 2012], this study found that workers with disabilities had greater than two times higher risk of being injured at one’s place of work than workers without disabilities. Additionally, for the work-related injuries sustained by workers with disabilities
172
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TABLE II. Demographic Distribution of U.S.Workers With and Without Disabilities, NHIS1997^2011 Without disabilities
Total Sex Male Female Age (years) 18^34 35^54 55þ Race Hispanic Non-Hispanic White Non-Hispanic Black Others Education
Characteristics of Nonfatal Occupational Injuries Among U.S. Workers With and Without Disabilities Junxin Shi, MD, PhD,1 Stephen Gardner, BS,2 Krista K. Wheeler, MS,1 Meghan C. Thompson, Bo Lu, PhD,3 Lorann Stallones, MPH, PhD,4 and Huiyun Xiang, MD, MPH, PhD5
BA,
2
Background Workers with disabilities have a higher risk of nonfatal occupational injuries than workers without disabilities. The characteristics of these injuries are not well described. Methods Using 1997–2011 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data, we compared the nonfatal occupational injuries sustained by U.S. workers with and without disabilities. Results Overexertion or strenuous movements and falls accounted for 56.7% of all occupational injuries in workers with disabilities, compared with 45.6% in workers without a disability. Workers with disabilities were more frequently injured in the lower extremity (32.3% vs. 26.6%) or torso (22.9% vs. 16.9%). Workers with disabilities sustained more unspecified injuries (13.5% vs. 7.9%) and fewer open wound injuries (15.7% vs. 24.2%) than their counterparts without a disability. Conclusions U.S. workers with disabilities had a higher rate of occupational injuries and these injuries tended to be more severe and were more likely to be caused by overexertion/ strenuous movement or falls. Am. J. Ind. Med. 58:168–177, 2015. ß 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
KEY WORDS: disability; occupational injury; U.S. workers; nonfatal; injury severity
INTRODUCTION Based on the 2012 American Community Survey (ACS), an estimated 10% of people (aged 18–64 years) in the United States, or approximately 19.6 million people, have disabilities [U.S. Census Bureau, 2012]. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, in January 2014, 4.5 million people with disabilities aged 16 years and above were employed [U.S.
1 Center for Pediatric Trauma Research, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, Ohio 2 Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, Ohio 3 Ohio State University College of Public Health, Columbus, Ohio 4 Colorado Injury Control Research Center, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 5 Center for Injury Research and Policy, Center for Pediatric Trauma Research, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, Ohio Correspondence to: Huiyun Xiang, MD, MPH, PhD, Center for Injury Research and Policy, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, 700 Children’s Drive, Columbus, OH 43205.E-mail: [email protected]
Accepted11September 2014 DOI10.1002/ajim.22395.Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).
ß 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Department of Labor, 2014]. Due to the aging workforce and the increasing number of children with disabilities who will eventually enter the working population, the number of workers with disabilities will likely increase in the coming years [Institute of Medicine (IOM), 2007]. Recent reports from the World Health Organization and the U.S. Surgeon General have addressed disparities in the health of persons with disabilities [U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2005; World Health Organization, 2011]. Previous research has shown that persons with disabilities are more susceptible to injuries [Xiang et al., 2005, 2014; Brophy et al., 2008; Rasch et al., 2008] and have a greater risk of occupational injury [Moll van Charante and Mulder, 1990; Zwerling et al., 1997, 1998a,b; Lysaght et al., 2011]. Our previous study, using 10 years of National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data, showed that the U.S. workers with disabilities have a 2.39 times higher odds of occupational injury than workers without disabilities [Price et al., 2012]. Previous studies have reported a higher prevalence of occupational injuries among workers with disability; however, to our knowledge no study has examined the characteristics of occupational injuries sustained by U.S. workers with
Occupational Injuries Among U.S. Workers
disabilities. Prior research has defined disability in different ways; however this study and more recent studies have sought to measure those reporting activity limitations which may or may not be accommodated environmentally. Information on injury characteristics, such as demographics, causes of injury, places of injury, types of injury and the most vulnerable body regions, is necessary to develop evidencebased injury prevention programs [Holder et al., 2001; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC), 2013]. Previous injury research focusing on persons with disabilities has been limited by small sample sizes of individuals with disabilities [Xiang et al., 2005; Brophy et al., 2008; Price et al., 2012]. Therefore, these smaller sample studies were limited in their ability to conduct the detailed analyses needed to discover the unique mechanisms and environmental situations of injuries suffered by persons with disabilities. This study aimed to compare the major occupational injury patterns among U.S. workers with and without disabilities, including the leading causes of injury, places of injury, activities at the time of injury, injury severity, injured body part, and types of injuries. Knowing patterns of injuries among U.S. workers with disabilities would provide crucial information that can aid in the creation of evidencebased injury prevention strategies for reducing work-related injuries among U.S. workers with disabilities.
MATERIALS AND METHODS Data Source We analyzed data from the 1997 to 2011 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) [National Center for Health Statistics, 2011]. This survey data, maintained by the National Center for Health Statistics, provided cross-sectional health information on the civilian, non-institutionalized population in the U.S. The complex survey design allows for the calculation of national estimates. The NHIS used computerassisted personal interviews to collect information about the prior 3 months for all members of selected households. The overall response rate for the survey years was approximately 86%. In our study, the Person file was used for extracting demographic information including disability information, and the Injury Episode file was used to obtain data on injury characteristics. Calculations of pooled estimates were performed as recommended in the NHIS Survey Description file to produce reliable and meaningful results about the U.S. civilian worker population over the defined time period.
Identification of Workers Workers were those “working for pay at a job or business,” “with a job or business but not at work,” or
169
“working, but not for pay, at a family-owned job or business” in the past week. For those respondents included in the Sample Adult survey, the responses on employment status were considered more accurate than the answers in the Person file, because in the Sample adult file, the respondent was answering for themselves, while in the Person file, the information might be collected from another person in the household. For the subset of workers with Sample adult data, occupation information was reported. Occupation was not known for those workers with Person file data only.
Definition of Disability Disability questions in the NHIS survey were based upon the disability concepts of the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) [World Health Organization, 2011]. Respondents were asked whether they had activity limitations because of a physical, mental, or emotional problem. Activity limitations questions included personal care needs, routine needs, working, walking, remembering or any other activities. This classification of disability has been used in previous studies [Loeb and Chen, 2011; Price et al., 2012]. To ensure all disabilities were pre-existing to any reported occupational injuries in our study, respondents were categorized as having a disability if they answered “yes” to any of the disability questions and if the limitations were from a chronic condition. Conditions that are generally not cured once acquired or other conditions that have been present for 3 months or longer were considered chronic in NHIS. Persons without disabilities were defined as those “not limited in any way.” Those reporting “limited, unknown if condition is chronic” and those “limited, not caused by chronic condition” were excluded from the analysis. The NHIS variables used to define limitations (disability) did not change between 1997 and 2011.
Definition of Occupational Injuries The NHIS collected specific data about medically treated injuries that occurred during the 3 months prior to the interview. Interviews were conducted year-round, thereby eliminating seasonal influence. Details about the injury included diagnosis, cause of injury, location, and activity at the time of injury. Injury information was then verified and coded using the International Classification of Disease 9th revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) codes for nature/ diagnosis (N code) and external cause (E code). Each respondent was allowed to record up to 10 injury and poisoning episodes. Every injury occurrence reported by a respondent was counted as a separate injury episode. One injured person could have multiple injury episodes. Occupational injuries were defined by the response of “working at a
170
Shi et al.
paid job” to the survey question “What activity were you involved in at the time of the injury?”
Sociodemographic Variables We included sex, age, race/ethnicity, education, marital status, poverty status, and health insurance coverage as variables that could potentially affect the association between disability and injuries. Questions about demographic information were recorded in the NHIS Person file, and the responses were obtained from one member of the household for all members of the household.
Statistical Analysis Data analyses were conducted using SAS 9.3 (SAS Institute, Cary, NC) and Stata release 13 (StataCorp LP, College Station, TX). Our analyses accounted for the complex survey design of the NHIS. The SAS procedure SURVEYFREQ was used. We translated the ICD-9-CM diagnosis code(s) into New Injury Severity Score (NISS) and entries of the Barell Diagnosis Injury Matrix using a Stata program ICDPIC [Clark et al., 2010]. The Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) scores each individual injury by body region according to its relative severity on a 6-point scale. The NISS is defined as the sum of the squares of the AIS scores of each of a patient’s three most severe AIS injuries regardless of the body region in which they occur [Osler et al., 1997]. The entries of the Barell matrix are combinations of injury body regions and nature of injury [Barell et al., 2002]. From these entries, we further extracted body region and nature of injury. Following procedures described in the Survey Description file, we calculated national estimates, weighted proportions (%), and 95% confidence intervals for the proportions, by demographic and other injury characteristics for workers with and without disabilities. The Chi-square test was used to compare rates and proportions. The data analyzed in this study were de-identified publicly accessible data. The Institutional Review Board of Nationwide Children’s Hospital reviewed the study and approved the exempt status.
RESULTS Using NHIS data from 1997 to 2011, our analysis included 633,710 workers 18 years who met the study’s inclusion criteria. Of the 633,710 workers, 4,105 workers reported 4,203 occupational injuries during the survey reference period. Among the 604,134 workers without disabilities, 3,678 workers reported 3,757 medically treated occupational injuries, with a 3-month incidence of 0.62 injuries per 100 workers. Among the 29,576 workers with
disabilities, 427 workers reported 446 occupational injuries, translating into a 3-month incidence of 1.51 injuries per 100 workers. The difference between these two rates was statistically significant (P < 0.0001). The prevalence for workers with disabilities decreased by 34% (the average in the period of 2007–2011 compared with the average in 1997– 2001), while for workers without disabilities the prevalence decreased by 25%. Those workers with chronic bone/joint injury and those with back/neck problems had a higher prevalence of occupational injuries (Table I). The characteristics of the workers with and without disabilities are shown in Table II. Females were a slightly larger proportion of the workers with disabilities (48.9%) when compared to the proportion of females among workers without disabilities (46.3%). Workers with disabilities were older than those without disabilities. Of the workers with disabilities, 31.5% were 55 years or older, as compared to workers without disabilities (15.3% were 55 years or older). There were a larger proportion of Non-Hispanic White persons among those with disabilities. A smaller proportion of those workers with disabilities had completed a 4-year degree. Among workers with disabilities, larger proportions were separated/divorced/widowed (26.2% vs. 14.0% of workers without disabilities). Workers with disabilities were more heavily represented in service occupations and had smaller proportions in managerial and professional occupations. Workers with disabilities were poorer, but similar proportions of workers with and without disabilities had health insurance. Male workers sustained over half of all occupational injuries in both groups; however the gender distributions were different among workers with and without disabilities, with females accounting for a larger proportion of injuries among workers with disabilities (43.3%) compared with 31.4% among those without a disability (Table III). Workers with disabilities sustaining occupational injuries tended to be older and separated/divorced/widowed. There were no other striking differences in the distribution of occupational injuries between workers with and without disabilities with respect to race, education, poverty status, or medical insurance coverage. Occupational injuries to workers with disabilities appeared to be slightly more severe than injuries to workers without disabilities (Table IV). Workers with a disability who sustained an occupational injury tended to miss more workdays and a higher proportion of their injuries were in a higher NISS group. The mean NISS was higher in workers with disabilities (2.24 3.98) than in workers without disabilities (1.80 1.61), P ¼ 0.0268. Overall, however, the majority of injuries were minor, with only about 2% of injuries requiring hospitalization and over 90% of injuries with a NISS less than 5. Table IV also shows the location and cause of injuries. Compared with injuries sustained by workers without a disability, a higher proportion of occupational injuries among workers with disabilities occurred at a shopping center,
Occupational Injuries Among U.S. Workers
171
TABLE I. The Prevalence of Occupational Injuries Among U.S.Workers With and Without Disabilities, NHIS1997^2011
Number of workers
Number of workers sustained occupational injuries
Workers without disabilities 604,134 3,678 1997^2001 219,126 1,572 2002^2006 199,723 1,109 2007^2011 185,285 997 Workers with disabilities 29,576 427 1997^2001 11,694 193 2002^2006 9,663 141 2007^2011 8,219 93 Chronic conditions reported by workers with activity limitations/disabilitiesa Back/neck problem 7,608 153 Arthritis/rheumatism 4,345 66 Fracture/bone/joint injury 3,317 70 Musculoskeletal problem 2,605 36 Heart problem 2,469 20 Depression/anxious/emotional problem 2,408 37 Lung/breath problem 2,249 31 Nervous system problem 2,223 29 Diabetes 2,040 28 Hypertension 1,876 22
Number of occupational injuries
Proportion of injured workers (%)
Injury prevalence (%)
3,757 1,605 1,129 1,023 446 204 147 95
0.61 0.72 0.56 0.54 1.44 1.65 1.46 1.13
0.62 0.73 0.57 0.55 1.51 1.74 1.52 1.16
163 70 72 38 22 38 33 29 29 23
2.01 1.52 2.11 1.38 0.81 1.54 1.38 1.30 1.37 1.17
2.14 1.61 2.17 1.46 0.89 1.58 1.47 1.30 1.42 1.23
a
Workers reporting limitations, top10 chronic conditions associated with disabilities/activity limitations.Workers may report more than one chronic condition.
restaurant, store, bank, gas station, or other place of business, or at a health care facility, and less likely occurred in industrial or construction areas. Overexertion/strenuous movements and falls were the two leading causes of workrelated injuries for both U.S. workers with and without disabilities. However, among the injuries to workers with disabilities, these two types of injuries accounted for a higher share of the total: 56.7% for workers with disabilities versus 45.6% for workers without disabilities. The top three types of injuries (by body region injured and nature of injury) for workers with disabilities were sprains and strains of the back and buttock (9.9%), open wounds of the wrist/hand/fingers (8.8%), and unspecified injuries of the trunk (6.5%) (Table IV). The injury profile was different for workers without disabilities, with the top three injuries being open wounds to the wrist/hand/fingers (15.6%), sprains and strains of the back and buttock (9.5%), and lower leg or ankle sprains and strains (6.0%). Workers with disabilities had a higher percentage of unspecified injuries of the trunk (6.5% vs. 2.9%) and fewer open wound injuries of the wrist/hand/ fingers (8.8% vs. 15.6%) compared with workers without disabilities. With respect to body region injured, a higher proportion of workers with disabilities were injured in the lower extremities (32.3% vs. 26.6%) and torso (22.9% vs. 16.9%) than workers without disabilities. Although the
leading injury type for both groups was sprains and strains (37.4% and 38.6%, for workers with and without disabilities, respectively), workers with a disability had more unspecified injuries (13.5% vs. 7.9%) and fewer open wound injuries (15.7% vs. 24.2%).
DISCUSSION Utilizing 15 years of NHIS data to produce one of the largest study samples of U.S. workers with occupational injuries, this study found differences in workplace injury patterns among workers with and without disabilities. Workers with disabilities sustained more work-related injuries, and these injuries appeared to be more severe compared with those sustained by workers without disabilities. For workers with disabilities, overexertion/strenuous movements and falls were the two most common mechanisms; sprains and strains were the most common type of injuries for both workers with and without disabilities. Confirming the findings of our previous study [Price et al., 2012], this study found that workers with disabilities had greater than two times higher risk of being injured at one’s place of work than workers without disabilities. Additionally, for the work-related injuries sustained by workers with disabilities
172
Shi et al.
TABLE II. Demographic Distribution of U.S.Workers With and Without Disabilities, NHIS1997^2011 Without disabilities
Total Sex Male Female Age (years) 18^34 35^54 55þ Race Hispanic Non-Hispanic White Non-Hispanic Black Others Education
